Revell's Mercedes-Benz SSKL

 Stopped by Hobby Lobby to pick up some things for another project I have in the works as well as some things for the Africa diorama i'm planning. 

Though they very seldom get new kits and have shrunk the model section from 16' space to an 8' space, this one caught my eye. And at 40% off sticker price, why not!

 

 As much as I like the American Muscle cars, I have always been drawn to the early day designs. As time has gone on, and one company buys five more, all the cars look a like. Back in the early days, cars not only class and style, but they had attitude and a personality. 

The kit comes with some hellacious smelling glue. All i did was take the cap off and the vapors and fumes came rolling out like an apocalyptic wasteland.  The 3 canisters of paint are a water based acrylic. I'll give those a shot first go. The white is a gloss where the brown is satin. I may skip the the included steel and use some of my Tamiya. 

I do plan on testing out my new AK Interactive Extreme base and the Extreme chrome. There's very little chrome on here, so it should be relatively easy.  

 I haven't opened the plastic yet, but from the box and the decals, the radiator doesn't seem to be detailed and relies on the included decals. I also noticed, there is no chrome plated parts, so it will be the AK Extreme chrome to give it the color.

 

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Panzer IV Ausf.G - Phase 3 Complete

 In the end, I think this tank turned out quite nicely. From everything I've learned over the last few years, it's not a show piece. But it will look great sitting in my display cabinet. I do plan on building some sort of small diorama with it, just need to figure out what. 

Phase 3 is technically 3 and 4 together to complete the kit. The phase 3 portion was all about the wash and slight weathering.  As well as getting the decals on.

Once it was all together, minus the tracks, i mixed up an oil wash using burnt umber oil paint. I actually created two washes like this. One was just darker than the other. My reasoning was, some areas would tend be darker than others, and instead of  doing a wash, waiting a few days for it to cure, then coming back and doing another, i could do it all at the same time. Let it cure then come back if needed for minor adjustments. 

 

 

With this being the version of the "remarked" tank, I needed to get the dry transfers down. I liked them, but they are a pain to get over anything that isn't completely flat.  With the decals being "older" i tried a new decal solution I picked up at AMPS Atalanta earlier this year. It seemed to work quite well and wasn't harsh on the older decals.

I stopped the weathering & detailing after the wash was complete. I don't want to start doing scratches and chips right now, since I haven't decided on how or what I am going to do for a base.  At this point, I also added some netting I picked up, since I wanted to mimic the original photos a bit.

The second part of phase 3 was getting the tracks done. I used a set of Ryefield workable links. I love these for the most part. They're easy to assembly, stay together when mounting on the tank unlike the so called "Magic Tracks." 

When i painted the spare tracks with the Tamiya Burnt Iron, the color stood out from the typical all black. When the tracks were completed, I skipped the primer and went straight to the Burnt Iron. 

The color is a tad lighter, which was expected, but I think it actually looks well done. 

One thing I need to figure out, is a way to get equal amounts of sag between the upper wheels. Since the track links are all movable, i need to find something to put in there to hold the sag, while i drop some glue on the tracks to get them to hold. 

Ryefield instructions stated 98 links per side. However, going with that, there was enough to make proper sag, so i ended up with 100 links per side.  

I really like this detail.

no matter what i did, i couldn't get his hand flush with the hull.

Over all I am pleased with this. I still have some items left that didn't make it on the tank that just may. There is a pry bar that I might add under the hand of the guy in the hatch. This will look more realistic than his hand just "floating" in the air.

As for the base/diorama, I have some AK Interactive Desert Sand as well as Desert Soil to use. I also have some AK Interactive Dust Effects i picked up a few years back. So, once I can figure something out, I'll get to weathering. 

 

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